


Gliding On Glass

by rain_on_his_umbrella



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Dan Howell and Phil Lester Are Soulmates, Dan Howell and Phil Lester Are Teenagers, Drowning, Elemental Magic, Eventual Happy Ending, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Ice Powers, Ice Skating, M/M, Mutual Pining, Near Death Experiences, Near Drowning, POV Dan Howell, Slow Burn, Soulmate AU, Strangers to Lovers, Winter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-22 17:49:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16602710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rain_on_his_umbrella/pseuds/rain_on_his_umbrella
Summary: After a near death encounter, Dan goes searching for the person who saved him from drowning. It can’t be the cute new kid... can it?Forgotten friendships, attempted murder, and an old pair of ice skates refuse to be tied in a neat little bow, and Dan wonders if balancing the blackmail and the abuse is even worth it anymore.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> !!!!!!PLEASE READ!!!!!!!  
> hi! my name is emma, and i am the author of this story. please email me at msunhappywithinfinity@gmail.com if you just want to say hi, or if you have questions, concerns about trigger warnings, or fixes of spelling/grammar errors. or, you can just comment down below!! either way works fine, i promise i don’t bite!
> 
> a small little easter egg i’ll point out for you now: all of the chapters will be inspired by a song, and that song will be the name of the chapter so you can read along to the music!

Dan spent a lot of time listening. Whether it was listening to a lecture by a teacher (more specifically, his mom), or to an audiobook that he’d found online for free because he had nothing better to do, he was always listening.

He was glad for the fact that he had good ears. But now? He would trade all of his hearing for some kind of way to escape.

There were times when Dan was glad he was blind, and this was not one of those times.

To be honest, though, Dan wasn’t completely blind. It was almost like someone was holding a sheet of wax paper in front of his eyes, with a few small holes in it in different places where his vision was blurry; never perfect. His Ophthalmologist called them blind spots, and they made his entire life a living hell.

He trudged through the forest, his arms securely behind his back, straining to hear something, _anything_ , that would get him out of this mess. The boy behind him - Jackson, Dan remembered - stepped on a twig, fracturing the winter silence that had settled with the oncoming snow of October.

Suddenly, they stopped, but Jackson’s grip on Dan’s arms didn’t cease any, and instead got tighter. Dan tensed. He knew what was coming.

Someone buried their fist in Dan’s gut, and Jackson kept him from doubling over in pain. The person who punched him, presumably Ashley - Jackson’s brother - whispered in Dan’s ear, “Hey Howell, got any last words before I remove your teeth with my fists?”

Dan struggled against Jackson’s grip and retorted, “I’m sorry. Was that comment meant to scare me?” He sneered. “The only thing scaring me right now is your face.”

Dan immediately regretted his comment when he tasted the blood in his mouth as Ashley forced him to his knees.

“You’re blind, jackass,” Jackson spat. “Nobody in the whole town wants you. We all know why they pulled you out of school. You couldn’t handle it.”

Dan winced as memories of panic attacks in primary school bathrooms forced their way into his head.

Ashley laughed. “Oh, you know it too! The only reason that bitch PJ sticks around is because he’s got a crush on you.” Ashley kicked Dan in the chest, who had no choice but to go sprawling in the sand.

Wait. Sand? Dan thought. Every drop of blood in his body went cold. He knew where they were now. He knew what they were about to do to him. Dan had the urge to sob, but he swallowed it down and sat up with some effort.

“Nothing clever to say now, crybaby?” Jackson jeered, kicking Dan’s side with a grunt. For too long, Dan’s entire body seized with fear and he wondered briefly if it was his body going into fight or flight mode. Dan whimpered as Jackson grabbed him by his curly brown hair and lifted him to eye level. “You know what we do to crybabies?” He smiled malevolently. “ _We shut them up._ ”

The next thing Dan knew, his two tormenters had grabbed him by his arms and legs and were heaving him up, so Dan couldn’t feel the frozen ground. He thrashed and shook, but their grip was almost like steel.

Dan knew that they were going to throw him into the pond in the woods. The second he felt sand beneath his hands he knew. Now, all he cared about was whether the water was iced over or not.

“One...” The boys called to each other. Dan kicked and kicked and tried to wrestle his way out of their grip, but to no avail. “Two...” They yelled, ecstasy in their voices, like they were almost overjoyed to be rid of Dan.

Dan held his breath. “ _Three_!”

Dan felt himself fly for forever, like he would never ever fall; his stomach flipped, and the cold of the air stung his bloody, raw cheeks more than ever. Then he crashed, hit something hard, and broke through it, like he had just fallen through a sheet of two-inch thick glass.

He heard laughing. He wondered if it was the laughter of angels, waiting to haul him away.

———

There's something perfect about Earth.

There's something poetic about howwind whips around in warm calmness and then later angry, biting cold, all because of the Ocean, constant and breathtaking.

There's something poetic about the fact that in these angry winds, trees and animals capable of feeling survive because of a network of millions upon millions of nerves all connected to a brain more complex than humans could ever hope of knowing.

There's something incredible about the fact that something as simple as grass can change and sway and move and grow with a gentle, cooling rain and a good breeze. And as humans, we absorb these things, and constantly question them; try to find out how they work.

But the bigger question is, why don't we wonder why we wonder? Why do we have etiquette and manners when nature has no manners, only laws?

This is what's so special about humanity. Earth has someone to write about its beauty.

It was ironic that Daniel discovered this wisdom as he sank in the icy water, through a hole that he had made with his own body as he was thrown in, without a word to his name when he died. Oh, and Dan knew he was about to die. He could feel the chill in his bones already, like Death was reaching into his body, ready to steal his soul away at the first chance. His entire life flashed in front of his broken eyes, nothing but different shades of yellow and screams of times passed in his sharp ears.

The laws of nature always won. Mother earth would have his body, and Dan knew instinctually that when he finally gave up, she would use him to her own advantage. This was life. This was Earth. Cruel. Painful. Beautiful.

The cold shocked the air right out of his lungs, and the water washed the blood off his lips and chilled him in the same right. He was forced to watch his only chance of getting out of his situation alive float towards the surface in little bubbles.

Blue light filtered through the hole in the ice, now far above him, his winter clothing weighing him down. Dan’s foggy eyes closed, giving up on him like his fingers and knees already had.

I’m too young to die, Dan thought to himself, but he didn’t fight the numbness creeping into his head and boiling lungs.

His shock-addled brain figured that the Earth was just finishing what it had started when he was born. His limbs shook with the cold, refusing to respond anymore.

Dan kept sinking, like his feet were weighted.

White was appearing like fog at the edges of his already horrible vision.

This is what I get for being the blind kid, Dan thought with a final burst of energy, his metaphorical last legs trying to support some weight before finally collapsing.

Dan fell away from Earth in some ways; he felt someone pulling at his arms. The light got brighter as Dan’s head got darker.

Finally, something happened. Like a crack of lightning in the blackest of nights. A warmth spread from his lips to his cheeks to the rest of his body, as if someone has breathed life into him again; returned his departing soul to his mortal vessel.

Dan was awake.

His eyes snapped open, and every muscle in his body burned like someone had taken a hot poker and stuck every strip of skin available. But he was alive.

Dan took stock for a second, his chest heaving. He was shivering so violently that he could’ve been mistaken for a startled chihuahua. His attackers were gone; probably ran off after they’d thrown him in and saw he hadn’t come back up right away.

Dan was on dry land, laying on the bank of the pond he had been tossed into, his soaked winter jacket laying a few feet away from him in a crumpled heap. Who had saved him and taken the care to strip him of his jacket, Dan had no idea. The world seemed too bright, to colorful, and he had to squint to see anything at all because it was so blinding.

And then he realized why. He could see. Dan cried. Right then and there.

Now, the world looked as if someone had ripped the metaphorical wax paper that Dan had been seeing through before and threw it in the bin.

Dan cried because it was so beautiful and blinding and _why couldn’t I have seen like this before? Why now?_

For a second Dan wondered if he was dreaming it all up inside his head. But the cold he was feeling, the burning on his skin and the clearness of his eyes? There was no way that it could be a dream.

There was a crashing in the brush, and Dan tensed; he was in no shape to fight off the bullies if they came back to finish him off.

Instead, his best friend, PJ Ligouri - a sixteen year old like him with a similar but darker mop of brown hair on top of his head - burst out of the tree line and shouted , “Dan I’m sorry I’m sorry they got you I didn’t know what to do and oh my god I tried to fight them off and - Dan? Are you okay?” He scampered over to Dan’s shivering side, and helped him to sit up a little better. “What... what did they do to you?” His voice shook, and his eyes searched Dan’s face and landed finally on his clear brown eyes.

PJ’s mouth open and closed, then opened again, and Dan smiled a little bit and chattered, “Something good, apparently.” For the first time ever in the history of their nearly ten year friendship, they made true eye contact. Dan looked at PJ, and PJ looked right back. A tear slipped down PJ’s cheek.

“Only you would ever say something like that.” He laughed, and slipped off his coat and wrapped it around Dan’s exposed arms. “For christ’s sake, I’d thought that I’d find you dead. How are we going to tell your mum?” He paused, and whispered, “How are we going to tell the authorities? I mean... if you want too, of course...”

Dan shivered violently as freezing water dribbled down his blue lips. He couldn’t stop blinking. It was too bright, too clear. He kept wondering if this was a hallucination brought on because his brain was slowly dying of a lack of oxygen.

“I have no idea,” Dan said slowly, his teeth chattering. “But before we do anything at all, I need a change of clothes and a meal.”

“Melissa’s Diner?”

“Of course.”

————

“So that’s basically what happened.” Dan explained nonchalantly, tonguing the split lip the Mac Carty brothers had given him. They sat at a booth in a steamy diner; the _only_ diner that was around for about thirty miles. It was one of those things that you had to deal with when you lived in a small town. The boys had headed there after sneaking into Dan’s room through the window to grab some cash and fresh clothing for Dan.

PJ studied Dan’s new black-and- blued face. “So... the McCarty brothers jumped you, threw you in the pond, some mysterious stranger then saved you from drowning somehow, and then left? Without even seeing if you’d woken up or anything?”

Dan nodded, and let his brand new eyes wander the colorful coffee shop. He just couldn’t get enough of how clear everything was, how many opportunities were now at his fingertips. How words made so much more sense now, so much better than the patches of symbols he caught through the clear spots in his vision.

A waitress interrupted their conversation and asked cautiously, “You boys want anything?” with a deliberate stare at Dan.

Dan met her gaze. “I’ll have a burger, if you’d please,” He looked over at PJ, who didn’t seem so eager to make eye contact anymore.

He looked down at his hands and answered, “I’ll have the same.”

The waitress shook her head in disbelief, threw one more glance at Dan, and jotted down their orders and ran into the kitchen, where Dan followed her with his eyes.

“Peej,” Dan turned his gaze to the boy. “Did you see anyone? Anyone at all?”

PJ shook his head. “No one but the McCarty’s, when they ran past me while I was looking for you.” PJ paused and looked lost in thought for a moment. “Wait... I think I heard someone besides me in the woods. I didn’t see them, though. What’s all this to you?”

Dan leaned back in his seat and picked absentmindedly at the sleeve of his jacket. “Nothing.”

PJ looked unconvinced nevertheless.

Their food arrived soon thereafter, and they distracted themselves from their pitiful American hamburgers with aimless conversation and half formed plans of how they were going to tell Dan’s mum about his new eyesight.

“No! Peej, I _cannot_ do that.” Dan laughed, his bruises momentarily forgotten. Dan was glad for the distraction.

“It’s a great idea! I don’t know what you mean!” PJ replied, clutching his heart and feinting offense in his voice.

Dan cackled, “I refuse to give my mother a cake that says, ‘’Look!’ It’s a miracle!’” Dan felt eyes boring into the back of his neck, but he didn’t care. He was happy, all of his worries forgotten.

Except for one.

But that could wait until tomorrow.


	2. idontwannabeyouanymore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i’ve decided i’ll post new chapters every Sunday, because those are the days that i usually have free. :)))

“Perfect vision,” the doctor said.

“Impossible,” Dan’s mum cried.

To Dan, this all seemed like a strange dream. He watched a movie all the way through for the first time the night before, and he still couldn’t get over how beautiful the world was without that permanent yellow-ness blocking him from worshiping it.

Word had spread quickly around town about Dan’s miraculously healed vision.

He was the town’s main source of gossip for nearly an entire week after the Incident, as Dan and PJ called it, and the ceaseless whispering still didn’t show signs of stopping. Then, there was the topic of Dan going back to school, now that he had no reason to be homeschooled anymore. It was still a fresh wound for Dan’s mother.

Dan and his Mum sat in silence the entire car ride home from the optometrist’s office, which was uncharacteristic of them, as Dan’s mother was quiet talkative most days. Dan figured his mum didn’t like being alone with her thoughts any more than he did.

Dan stared out the passenger side window. He mulled over everything that had happened in the week since the McCarty brothers tried to kill him. There was so much to think about now.

Every time he walked down the street, people waved hands in his face or asked for proof of his prior blindness; he’d even gotten an interview with the local newspaper, and sensed there were more to come.

And yet, in all the times he had recounted his story to strangers and family alike, he had never - not even once - mentioned the McCarty brothers involvement. He played it off to be his own mistake, and for what? What did he owe them to keep their secret? They tried to _kill_ him.

Dan just couldn’t say it. He couldn’t admit to it, no matter how much he tried. He’d rather keep the secret between him and PJ, where no outsiders could wedge themselves in and pop Dan’s safe, twisted little bubble.

It was so, so, so so much easier to let the papers call him a miracle rather than a survivor.

The car pulled to a stop in the driveway, and Dan’s mum never took her hands off the steering wheel. She quivered, just barely, not nearly enough to be noticeable by others but Dan knew his mother and knew the shake in her hands. She turned to look at him when he didn’t get out.

“Daniel, sweetheart,” She wearied, her knuckles turning white on the steering wheel. “Why don’t you go inside?”

Dan stayed put, and took one of his Mother’s hands. “You know, Mum, they always said I had your eyes. I think I get it now.”

All of a sudden, the wall Dan’s mum had built up against him and his blindness broke all at once, and she collapsed against his shoulder in a puddle of tears, her chest heaving. “I-I’m so-sorry, Dan. I-I should h-have believed you. After a-all these y-y-years, I j-just c-can’t let go.” She sniffed, wiping away her tears with the back of her hand, an attempt to compose herself.

She sat up and looked over at Dan as if she was looking at an old friend rather than as a child. “I guess... You don’t need my help anymore.”

Dan smiled. “I’ll still need your help with some things, Mum. Like taxes. And writing resumes.”

“And girls!” Dan’s mum added, and Dan almost flinched, kind of like his chest suddenly went “!” and he didn’t know why. He laughed mirthlessly instead, “Yes, and girls too, I guess.”

A content silence settled over the car.

“We should probably go inside,” Dan’s mum began, wiping at her cheeks a little bit. “Tell your Dad the news.”

Dan nodded. The news. As if he hadn’t told them over a week before.

Dan extracted his lanky body from the car, and followed his mum into the house.

———

kickthepeej: So what did your dad say :3

danisnotonfire: not much tbh. he believed me when i told him the first time.

kickthepeej: Not surprised lol. Your dad trusts you 1000% more than your mom does

danisnotonfire: i think she trusts me more now. we had a talk and everything. granted, it was a short talk but i think everything might be okay now.

kickthepeej: Okay, now that we’ve got that out of the way, any progress on operation mystery guy?

danisnotonfire: i thought we agreed not to call it that!! oml my mum reads my texts m8.

kickthepeej: Sorry. Any leads?

danisnotonfire: yes.

kickthepeej: ???

danisnotonfire: just tryna make you squirm. there’s a new kid in town. moved in about two weeks ago. nobodies been talking about him, not naming names but his name is Phil Lester, apparently.

kickthepeej: Never heard of him.

danisnotonfire: exactly! i need more info on this guy. i’m getting some vibes from him.

kickthepeej: I can get a look at the student files, see if he goes to my school. I know a guy who knows a guy who has a sister who knows someone. Have you talked to your mum yet about going to school?

danisnotonfire: not yet, but she’s suspicious.

kickthepeej: Do it soon, I can’t wait for you to meet my mates

danisnotonfire: oh, joy.

kickthepeej: Shut up

kickthepeej: jk I already miss you

danisnotonfire: yeah right, i’ve gtg dinner’s ready.

kickthepeej: kk See you tomorrow?

danisnotonfire: yeah, meet me at the pond k?

kickthepeej: Yep. Bye

danisnotonfire: bye

——-

“You can’t be serious.” Dan’s mum sat up father in her chair, all nonchalance in her attitude gone.

Dan glanced at his Dad for defense. He looked very interested in his curry rice all of a sudden.

“Dad?” Dan beseeched, and Dan’s father met his wife’s eyes. They seemed to have a silent argument. Dan’s mum slumped in her seat after a few moments of deliberation.

Dan’s dad cleared his throat. “Your mum has a point, Daniel. There will be many, um, challenges, if you decide to go back to school. But it is your choice, whether your _mum_ ,” Dan’s dad sent a pointed look in her direction, “Likes it, or not.”

Dan’s mum sighed. “God’s given us a great gift,” She admitted. “It would be unwise to not take it.”

Dan smiled. He felt the urge to jump for joy, but kept his feet planted. He picked up his plate and stood before he remembered to ask, “May I be excused?” Dan’s mum waved her hand dismissively. Dan ran his plate to the kitchen sink and took the stairs two at a time, whooping like a little kid who’d just won a game of hide-and-seek.

——-

danisnotonfire: victory!!!

kickthepeej: Whoo!! Whoo!!

——

Dan set his phone down momentarily when he heard irate yells coming from the floor below him.

——-

danisnotonfire: i think they’re fighting about it though, so that might change.

kickthepeej: :( Well hopefully they do the right thing and let you go to school.

danisnotonfire: i agree m8.

kickthepeej: I gtg. My Mum says it’s family game night.

danisnotonfire: good luck with that.

kickthepeej: /:)

——

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> things should start speeding up soon! we’ll also be meeting this “phil” in the next few chapters, so look forward to that, lovelies.  
> have an incredible day.


	3. Waves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was inspired by Waves - Chloe Moriondo
> 
> I hope you don't mind that I'm posting today instead of tomorrow, but I got finished with the chapter and really wanted you guys to read it. :)))))

Life is easier when your eyes are closed.

You don’t have to look at your problems; you can just dream them away, imagine a new universe where they don’t exist.

Dan had two problems. One was learning how to fit in. The second was the fact that he would be sharing school halls with the McCarty brothers, which meant that he'd definitely run into them at some point, even if he was trying his best. It was a small school.

Dan and his mum had found a nice shady spot in the school parking lot nearly thirty minutes before school began. Dan's mum was still not ready for the day, as she most likely wasn't used to waking up at 07:30 to drive Dan to school quite yet.

“Bear, are you sure you don’t want me walk you to the office?" Dan's mum's voice broke Dan from the waves of invasive thoughts he had been drowning in as he waited for her to finish applying her lipstick in the reflection of a compact mirror.

Dan tore his gaze from the stream of students trickling into the school building. He sighed, and shook his head at his mother, who was still trying to fix some kind of microscopic discrepancy in her eyeliner that Dan didn't even notice was there in the first place.

Dan gestured towards the school. "Do you see any of them with their mothers?" Dan quipped, realizing too late that his voice was shaky. His mum didn't seem to notice.

She lowered her hand from her face, and frowned a bit, looking out at the crowd of kids outside the secondary school. "No," She mumbled, "I guess not." She paused for a second, and then added, "But are you  _sure?_ I've always walked you everywhere before. Why would this time be any different?"

"Mum," Dan reminded with a roll of the eyes, running his fingers through his curly hair aggressively, maybe an attempt to fix it. "I don't want to be _'that blind kid'_ any more. I don't need you." Dan's mum flinched at his comment. "I want to be normal this year, if that's okay with you." He finished. His mum stared at him, seeming to collect some words to fling back at him, but before she could, Dan slung his bag over his back and clambered out of the car, slamming the door behind him as he went.

He didn't look back when he skirted around a group of laughing teens who followed him with their eyes, or a car that probably would've hit him if he hadn't shouted some obscenities. He didn't look back when he walked through the school doors.  _Serves her right,_ Dan thought,  _I can do this on my own._

Almost immediately, Dan was lost.

He didn't want to ask for help and his endless search for the office so he could get his schedule led him on a wild goose chase all across the school, until he felt so frustrated that he plopped down on a bench close to the school's entrance and emptied his head for a few minutes.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder. Dan rubbed at his eyes and looked up, expecting to see a teacher or a janitor or something, but instead was met with the face of a concerned student.

He looked (to Dan, at least) like if a black rose had somehow developed a human personality, if a person could look that way. His ebony colored hair was teased up above his forehead, strands of hair impossibly, perfectly, _unattainably_  feathery and soft looking while the only explanation for this hairstyle would be huge amounts of gel. His cheeks were pleasingly rouged, his eyes the same green/blue/yellow as the Caribbean. Distantly, Dan wondered if it was possible to swim in those eyes of his.

This boy certainly had his attention, all right, but not necessarily in a way that Dan appreciated.

"You're Dan, correct?" The boy asked, and Dan was acutely aware that his cheeks were the brightest shade of red that was possible on a human being. Dan stared up at him in wonder.

"Yes," Dan finally answered. "That's me."

The boy smiled warmly at him. "Hello," He stretched out a lanky arm to Dan. "My name is Phil. It's nice to finally meet you."

Dan felt some of the stress melt off his shoulders. He made a mental note to tell PJ about his first thoughts of this Phil guy everyone had been talking about. Dan shook Phil's hand cautiously, and was temted to pull away when he felt the iciness of Phil's hand send chills up Dan's back.. "Umm... You too, I guess." Dan stood up and was surprised to see that Phil was actually taller than him. Dan was taller than  _everyone._ He was actually sort of glad to meet an exception to this rule.

"Umm, do you know where the Office is?" Dan asked, hoping that at least he would know, even if he hadn't been at this school much longer than Dan had.

Phil nodded brightly. "Yes, I was just on my way there." He turned around and started down the opposite hall. "C'mon!"

Dan had to rush to follow him.

\--------

"Mr. Howell! Mr. Phillip! We were expecting you." A primpy woman chirped, seated at a long desk near the center of the room they had entered. Dan looked around and wasn't surprised by the forbidding lack of windows in the office, and the way it seemed to radiate negative vibes from all the kids who had been sentenced to a severe reprimand by the headmaster before.

Dan tilted his head in confusion. "You were?" He approached the desk alongside Phil.

"Oh, yes." She smiled. She gestured vaguely towards Phil, and turned to retrieve papers from a filing cabinet beside her chair. "It seems you've already met your guide."

"Guide?" Dan asked, glancing at Phil, who gave him an official nod.

"Oh, when Phil heard that'd you'd be joining us here, he practically begged to show you around." The receptionist lady handed a piece of paper to Dan as she explained, "And _that,"_ She pointed at the nearly labeled paper in Dan's hands, "Is your schedule. You should expect it to change around a bit with double lessons and such." A bell rang, and the sound of it hurt Dan's sensitive ears a little.

"Oh! You boys better be going. Don't want to be late for your first class of the day!" The receptionist practically shood them out.

Dan stood outside the office doors, waiting for Phil to head off to his own classes, but he remained.

Phil looked at him curiously, and he also seemed to be waiting. Dan took the initiative and looked down at his schedule, which told him that his very first class of the day would be maths, his very least favorite subject. Oh, joy.

Phil peered over at the paper in Dan's hands. "Oh," He grinned, "Our schedule is nearly the same. You don't mind if I walk with you to class, do you?" Dan shook his head. "Great!" Phil replied, starting off without even a glance to see if Dan was following. "You'll like Ms. Davies. She's a real marvel, she is."

Dan trotted to Phil's side as they briskly walked down an adjacent hall lined with lockers and classrooms. "Why do you talk like that?" Dan asked boldly.

Phil looked down at Dan and cocked his head. "I don't see what you mean."

Dan laughed. "Look, you just did it! What I'm wondering is why you speak like my grandfather."

Phil stopped and furrowed his eyebrows. "Is there a way that I'm  _supposed_ to speak?"

Dan shook his head. "You really are a piece of work, huh?" And stood up straighter and looked Phil in the eyes. "Well, for one, maybe you should try using more slang. Don't talk so formally. We're at school, not a fancy dinner party."

Phil nodded. "Okay." He started off again, at a quicker pace. Dan could see why, the halls were starting to thin alarmingly fast and Dan had a feeling they weren't even close to where they needed to be.

Dan realised that he needed to remember where he was so he could find the classroom on his own later, but the endless rows of classrooms and corners to turn became a blur, so Dan gave up. He hoped his intuition would save him later on, but he wasn't so sure.

The slid into the classroom just as the final bell rang. "Careful, lads." Said a lady from the front of the room as Dan slipped into an empty seat close to the back, and Phil sat down in his assigned seat a few ahead of Dan's. "You 'r almost late. Try not to loligaggle as much next time, aigh?" She had a very distinct Scottish accent and mousey brown hair tied into a tight bun. She nodded to herself and began the lesson by writing something on the whiteboard.

"Now, kids," She said, he back turned to them. "Can anyone refresh me on the Quadratic Formula?"

\-------

Phil escorted Dan to his next class, and Dan started to notice the stares he received whenever he wasn't looking, the snatches of whispers that said his name. He became apprehensive. Did everyone know? At least he hadn't been forced to present himself yet, like new kids did in the movies.

Every so often as they traversed the school halls, Phil would throw concerned glances his way. He had a feeling that Phil had his suspicions, but was too polite to ask.

The got to their second class without much incident, but Dan tensed when he saw who he'd be sharing it with. One of the McCarty boys - _Ashley_ , Dan thought - saw him as he walked in, and all the blood drained from his face, as if he'd just seen a ghost. Dan took an unoccupied seat specified by their teacher as far away from Ashley as possible.

When class began, Dan could swear he felt eyes boring into the back of his neck the entire time. Dan felt safer than he did roaming the open halls, as long as Phil was here. For some reason, Phil gave off the same vibes that big dogs do: the possibility of danger, but also an aura of safety, like a knife in the proper hands. Dan felt weird that he was comparing Phil to knives, so he tried to focus all his limited energy on the teacher.

"It also appears that we have a new student. Daniel? Would you please stand and tell us a little about yourself?" 

_Shit._

The teacher was staring expectantly at him, and Dan got shakily to his feet. He looked out at the several rows of desks in front of him, each containing a bored looking student. He swallowed down the bile rising up his throat and said quietly, "Uh... Hi. My name's Daniel, but please call me Dan." He looked at the teacher, who seemed to want more out of him. "Uh, yeah. I've been... Uh... Homeschooled for most of my life, and I'm going to school here now... but you already knew that." Dan laughed awkwardly and wilted down into his seat.

The teacher cleared his throat and smiled at the students, "Please, if you would, give Dan a round of applause as a welcome to our school." There were a few tentative claps from around the classroom. "Alright, now that that's out of the way..." The teacher continued, pulling down a map of the British isles from the mount in the ceiling. "What do you know about Ireland?" Hands shot up, but Dan stared ahead silently, his mind replaying his failure at communication a billion times over in his head.

\------

Phil and Dan parted ways shortly after, and agreed to meet up again after lunch.

Dan searched the crowded lunch hall for his friend and his friends, and eventually caught sight of them leaning up against a far wall, their packed lunches sitting half eaten on their laps. There were four people total, only one of them being someone he recognized. PJ waved him over and introduced him to the group.

"Everyone, this is Dan." PJ grinned, and the five people waved at him cheerfully. "Dan, meet Louise," A blond girl smiled at him, "Sean," A tall brunette boy shot him some finger guns, "And Mark." Mark seemed very preoccupied with a game on his phone, so he didn't acknowledge Dan. PJ nodded approvingly. "So, how are you liking the school so far?" And then added on in a hushed voice, "Got any leads so far?"

Dan shook his head and whispered back, "I met that Phil guy. He seems nice, but other than that, nothing."

PJ giggled quietly. "Is he hot?"

Dan blushed deeply and muttered back, "Oh my god, is that all you think about? For _Christ's sake_ , Peej-"

Louise loudly broke into their conversation. "For heaven's sake, what are you two whispering about over there?"

"Nothing." Both Dan and PJ said in unison.

Louise hummed but didn't seem convinced.

\-------

Dan had texted his mum that he was walking home. It was only a mile's walk, so he was confident he could do it himself. Also, he was not ready for his Mum's endless questions about his first day of school. He took the walk home as a blessing.

When he sensed that someone was following him, however, he became on edge. He didn't see anyone when he turned to look back at the pavement behind him, but he still felt a creeping chill at the base of his neck, like someone was holding an ice cold gun barrel to it.

He sped up. That was his mistake.

When he tripped on a loose chunk of pavement, he tried to get up as quickly as he could, but before he even got his arms under him, he was being dragged into an adjacent alleyway, out of sight of the street.

Panic dulled all of his senses. He was picked up and pushed up against the concrete alley walls, fear prickling at every nerve. He recognized Ashley, and his brutish nose, and his brother, Jackson, was there too, but kept his distance.

"So," Ashley breathed, his face too close to Dan's for his liking, "When did they start letting filthy rats into school? Did it begin with you, or that weirdo you hang out with? What's his name? Phil?"

Dan didn't say a word, and instead kicked Ashley in the crotch, sending him down the ground painfully. Jackson surged forward, aiming a fist at Dan's face, who couldn't get out of the way fast enough. The punch grazed Dan's cheek, disorienting him just enough for Jackson to get him in a chokehold. Dan struggled and kicked and tried to pull Jackson's elbow of his neck, but to no avail. Ashley got to his feet and gritted his teeth. "Looks like the rat's got some bite to him." He stepped closer. "Would a shame to knock all of it out."

" _HEY!!"_ A familiar voice shouted from the end of the alleyway. "Let. Him. Go."

Ashley turned his attention away from Dan and to the intruder that Dan couldn't see. "What're you gonna do, newbie? Talk me to death?"

"No. I'm gonna do something, much, _much_ worse." The voice replied.

Then everything happened in a blur. Dan was dropped, and the temperature seemed to drop 40 degrees. He heard screaming. Then silence.

Someone was shaking him. Dan pried his eyes open, and looked up at a particular black haired boy's face. "Hey," Phil said gently, helping him up. "I don't think they'll be bothering you anymore."

Dan rubbed five face groggily. "What-what did you-"

Phil interrupted him. "You should go home before they come back."

Dan couldn't argue with that, so he limped home and prepared himself to face the endless questions that awaited him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!! I love you all. also, can you tell me if I'm getting my british slang right? im American so I have literally no idea oml.


	4. Spaceland

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is based off of Spaceland - Chloe Moriondo. thank you for coming back to read yet another chapter. ily.

It was Phil’s idea to walk Dan to school.

Phil had approached him the day after the McCarty boys attacked, and insisted that Dan just couldn’t be allowed to walk home alone anymore.

Dan protested at first, but despite his newfound desire to become independent, deep down, he wanted to spend more time with Phil.

Phil, the weirdo kid.

Phil, the unabashedly handsome weirdo kid, but the weirdo kid all the same.

As October drew to an end, the already frigid weather grew even colder and Dan found himself spending less time with PJ, and more time inside Melissa’s American Diner, drinking hot cocoa alongside Phil on bitter winter mornings.

There was still something tickling the back of Dan’s head about the circumstances of their new arrangement, specifically, the odds that Phil was somehow walking down the exact street at the exact time that Dan was being beat up, and instead of walking past, saved Dan from a broken nose and a bruised neck.

The possible idea that Phil had been tailing him didn’t compute in Dan’s naïve brain, and it gave him a headache to think about it, so whenever he was with Phil, he pushed it away so it wouldn’t distract him from Phil’s everything.

“Dan? Dan?”

Dan hadn’t realized he’d been drifting until Phil called his name. “Oh, uh, yeah?” Dan looked at Phil instead of staring listlessly into his mug of hit chocolate.

“We have thirty minutes before the first bell,” Phil reminded Dan as he pulled out his wallet from his back pocket. “We should probably go.”

Dan nodded and went to pull a few notes from his school bag, but Phil stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “Hold on. I’ve got it today.”

“You can’t, not again!” Dan groaned, pulling five pounds from his bag despite Phil’s protests. “You’ve insisted that you pay every day this week. I’m paying today, whether you like it or not, Lester.”

Phil rolled his eyes, but put his wallet away as Dan passed the wad of bills to the waitress, who put them in the cash register with a satisfied nod.

Dan hopped of the bar stool and waved for Phil. “I guess we’ve got to go to school now. Thanks, Phillip.” Dan teased playfully when they got outside and began to walk in the direction of the school, which was only about three blocks further.

“It’s not my problem if you fail, Daniel.” Phil replied with a smirk.

Something in Dan’s gut twisted when Phil said Daniel, and they fell into a comfortable silence as they walked, Dan trying to ignore the violent heat flaring up in his face.

When they got to the building, a pale-looking PJ ran up to them, his eyes blown wide and his chest heaving. “Uh...” PJ panted. “Don’t go to your lockers.”

Dan furrowed his eyebrows. “Is this some kind of weird joke or something?”

PJ shook his head. “No. Both of you, avoid your lockers, I swear on my mum’s life that neither of you’re going to like what you see.”

Dan pushed past PJ and raced inside, anticipating nothing special, maybe a prank of some kind, but his stomach sank with every averted gaze and quiet whisper he faced as he sped down the hall.

He slowed down to a crawl when he saw the group of other students surrounding his locker, confusion and disgust on their faces. Dan’s stomach sank as the sea of teenagers parted for him, and he got a glimpse of the word spray painted on his locker.

Liar, his locker said, in bright red paint and sloppy handwriting. A picture of him, taken from a newspaper clipping, was taped just below it. Dan already knew who had done it.

The other students looked at him, the death sentence of pity written all over their faces. Dan couldn’t take it. He ran and found the nearest bathroom, locked himself in a stall; pretended that there was nothing else in the world but him as his nose burned and he tried to control the urge to let all his tears flow.

It was fine when it was just him, when they terrorized him secretly and let him keep it locked away in his heart, never to be spoken to another soul.

Now, they were advertising his weakness, his bubbling, burning passion to be normal, to the entire school. They knew he would never rat them out. It was sickening, manipulative. Almost parasitic. As if they were leeching away Dan’s free will, forcing him to live in fear of their next strike.

Dan punched the stall wall, shivering as pain flared up and down his arm. The pain felt good for maybe a second, but the that flitted away and was replaced by a boiling in Dan’s guts, a war inside his head; fear and anger tussling back and forth, back and forth, until Dan was clutching his face in his hands on the floor, hidden away from prying eyes.

Someone opened the door quietly, and Dan heard a familiar voice call his name. “Dan? Are you alright?”

Dan decided it was too late to pretend that he was okay, he was sure that Phil had heard him sniffling already, so he wiped the tears off his face as best he could and stepped out of the stall, hoping against hope that he wouldn’t be all red and splotchy.

The way Phil looked at him told Dan otherwise.

“I-I’m fine.” Dan mumbled, already making his way to step out of the bathroom and avoid a morbidly embarrassing moment, but Phil stopped him by grabbing his wrist.

“Dan, who did this?” Phil asked, staring into Dan’s soul, searching for a lie on his face.

“I don’t know.” Dan shook his head.

Phil looked down, seemingly having gotten what he was looking for, disappointment seeping into his expression. Phil already knew. Dan knew that much. But knowing something and saying it out loud are two completely different things.

When Dan stepped back to leave, Phil hugged him. Dan was shocked at first, but allowed himself to be pulled into it. He let himself wrap his arms around Phil’s waist; let his tears escape and soak Phil’s blazer.

“I’m sorry they’re doing this to you, Dan. You don’t deserve it.” Phil whispered into Dan’s shoulder.

Dan didn’t respond.

The bell rang, and they broke apart, heading silently to their shared first class, guilt weighing too heavy on Dan’s shoulders.

——-

Classes came and went like blurs of color in Dan’s eyes.

When lunch came around, Dan didn’t feel like eating, so he sat on by his friend’s sides, staring numbly into the floor.

His silence seemed to sully the normally cheery mood lunch carried, everyone in his group sharing quiet conversation and stealing glances at Dan. Rumors spread quickly as to why someone had written Liar on the past blind kid’s locker, and a culprit had yet to be caught.

PJ kept opening his mouth to speak to Dan, but closed it right after when he didn’t know what to say.

And that is how lunch passed, and every class afterward.

———

“Dan, dear, how was school?” Dan’s mum asked as he walked through the kitchen on his way upstairs.

“Fine.” Dan replied, one amongst many of the broken records of ‘fine’s that had come to pass that day.

He climbed slowly up the stairs, the weights of everything in his life tugging just a little too heavily at his feet.

Dan closed the door to his room behind him, and collapsed on his bed, unable to drift off, but unable to keep awake. He pulled out his phone. There was a text from PJ.

kickthepeej: Do you want to talk about it?

Dan almost turned off his phone, but instead typed out a simple answer:

danisnotonfire: no.

———

Dan woke up with the moon on his back, still fully clothed. He turned over and rubbed his face, wondering why he’d woken up, when he heard a pebble hit the window with a clink.

Dan got up and opened the window, not expecting to see Phil on the ground a floor below him.

“Dan!” Phil whispered yelled. “C’mon, I’ve got to show you something!”

Dan almost laughed. “Phil! It’s, like, three in the morning. Where the hell are you taking me this early?”

Phil shook his head with a grin. “Can’t tell you. Do you have any ice skates?”

Dan nodded. “Yeah, but they’re really old.”

Phil shrugged his shoulders. “They should work.”

Dan nodded at Phil and ran to his closet, and sifted through years of old clothes until he found a pair of old, rusty ice skates that used to be his Dad’s. He tried them on quickly, surprised that they fit, and tugged on a jacket and his normal shoes and crept down the stairs as quietly as he could.

Both of his parents were passed out on the couch, a bowl of popcorn between them, black-and-white scenes from an old horror movie lighting up their sleeping faces. Dan opened the door quietly, slipped out the door, and closed it behind him.

He was home free.

Phil stood on his front porch, looking fit (as always) in a beanie and a heavy jacket. “You ready to go?” Phil asked. Dan nodded, and they walked down the street silently, the streetlights giving their steamy breaths a faint yellow glow.

Dan looked at Phil and asked, “Where exactly are we going?”

Phil smiled mischievously. “Somewhere.”

Dan rolled his eyes. “Well, duh. But if you’re taking me ice skating, you’re going to be out of luck. Nothing’s frozen over yet.”

Phil winked. “And that’s where you’re wrong.”

They kept silent after that, walking through where Dan’s neighborhood intersected with a wooded path that led to a fateful place; a place where nothing good ever happens to anyone. Dan stiffened and hoped that Phil wouldn’t notice the fear in his eyes.

Phil kept walking, so Dan followed a few steps behind. The gravel crunched under their feet as they walked, and every footstep seemed to make the air drop a degree in temperature. The trees seemed to close in on them, the moonlight had trouble filtering through the leaves. Dan stopped, and terror made him shiver.

A few feet ahead of him, Phil turned around when he no longer heard the turning of pebbles from behind him. He reached out his hand to Dan, a silent question, a request that Dan was terrified of but also excited by. No words were exchanged when Dan took Phil’s ice cold hand, clutching him as if he was the only thing keeping him from floating off from earth. He felt more secure, but still intimidated by the darkness surrounding them.

The trees seemed to thin out as they reached a familiar clearing, one that Dan knew too well. A crystal pond took up most of the free space, the moonlight reflecting off its icy surface. Dan was shocked to see that it was completely frozen over, the ice nearly a foot deep. It was far too early in the year for that, Dan knew it, and yet, there it was. He stared at it, trying to figure out how.

“What’re you doing?” Phil teased, and let go of Dan’s hand. “C’mon, get your skates on. We don’t have all night.”

“But... but it’s not... how..?” Dan murmured softly to himself.

Phil moved closer, so closely that their arms brushed. “Dan.” Phil proposed, his breath fanning over Dan’s ears as he spoke. “Just live in the moment.”

Dan turned to him and nodded, pushing the impossibility of it all out of his mind and tugging on his skates, lacing them up with eyes closed, the way he’d been taught to tie his shoes.

Phil was already on the ice, doing lazy circles that still seemed graceful and beautiful when outlined by the moonlight.

Dan stepped out and clumsily fell right onto his bum. Phil laughed and helped him back up, and again they were so close that Dan’s brain shut down. “Please tell me you’ve been ice skating before.” Phil chuckled.

Dan pushed himself off of Phil gently and managed to stay upright on his own. “Well, I haven’t gone skating since I was a kid. My parents stopped taking me when they figured that I can’t skate if I can’t see my own feet.”

Phil nodded. “How many things have you not done yet?”

Dan tilted his head as he attempted to move forward a little bit. Phil was circling him, doing figure eights that made Dan jealous. “I don’t get what you mean.” Dan replied cautiously.

Phil paused on the ice for a second, lost and thought, and finally said, “I mean, how many normal teenager things have you yet to do because you were blind?”

Dan seemed to catch on. “Like going to the movies and stuff?”

Phil nodded. “Yeah.”

Dan shrugged his shoulders. “Well... I don’t know. There’s a lot of things.”

“But specifically.” Phil appealed with a smile. He started doing figure eights again.

“Well, there’s what I said before. I’ve never been to the cinema. Also I’ve never been bowling, or stargazing, or on a date. I’ve never been to the library, and I’ve never really seen snow. I know it’s white, I’ve felt it everything, I know it’s cold. But I’ve never seen it fall before.” Dan listed, finally gaining enough confidence to skate slowly around the edges of the pond.

Phil was staring after him, a look on his face that Dan couldn’t place. “You’ve never seen snow?” He asked incredulously. Dan nodded.

Phil skated over to him. “Next Saturday,” Phil began, stopping Dan in his tracks. “We’re going to do all these things that you’ve never done. I promise you. You deserve it.”

Something was twisting in Dan’s chest, like metal being melted and shaped into something different. The anxiety in his stomach became butterflies and he knew his cheeks were rosy for a reason other than the cold.  
He just hoped the Phil hadn’t noticed.


	5. Nothing Left To Say Now / Rocks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is brought to you by Nothing Left To Say Now / Rocks - Imagine Dragons

Dan woke up screaming.

His body was caked with sweat, his duvet kicked to the floor. His skin felt raw, like he'd been whipped a thousand times. Blood stained his face from a perpetual nosebleed, the mark of a battle he'd been in in his sleep.

As the horrors of Dan's nightmare faded from his mind, his mother drove him to A&E, horrified when she could only see the whites of her eldest son's eyes. When they finally got there, Dan's clothing was soaked red by a face that refused to stop dripping crimson.

Dan rocked and rocked and rocked, his mind scarred, his brain attempting to pull itself back together. X-Rays revealed nothing, MRI's too. An entire week in hospital revealed nothing. His nosebleed was reduced to a stain on his lips that he could wipe away.

When the doctors deemed him recovered enough, they sent him home with six prescriptions and an appointment for a local therapist.

Dan knew deep down in his bones that something unnatural happened to him that Saturday morning. It was a warning of some kind, a sign. He felt  _changed,_ somehow, like someone had switched all his atoms around. The world felt more restless around him, more hostile. So  _strange._

Something was out to get him, but what?

PJ had sent him a picture of Phil's locker a few days earlier, and in identical handwriting, to what had been on his locker, the word 'Freak' was spray-painted onto it. An idea was starting to form, like a vine twisting its way around Dan's heart.

He'd had a lot of time to think while he was in hospital, and the very first thing he did as he was helped into the family mini van was call PJ.

"Peej!" Dan croaked, his voice box still feeling as though it'd been boiled.

PJ yelped on the other line. " _Bloody hell! Dan! I'm sorry I couldn't visit you in hospital, there was so much going on at school and-"_

Dan sighed. "I don't really care about that right now, operation Mystery Guy is still on, right?"

" _Uh, yeah. Why do you ask?"_

"Meet me at my house in about an hour. I have a lead."

_"Dan, what the hell-"_ Dan quickly hit the red 'End Call' button and rested his head against the headrest, a sigh escaping his lips. Just that conversation was enough to exhaust him, but he needed to tell PJ about what he'd remembered from his dream before his mind purged all of it. He grabbed a tissue from his pocket, wiped the blood off his face for the fifteenth time that day, and fell asleep to forget the pounding in his head.

\---------

"Okay, so why am I here?" PJ asked, plopping down into Dan's desk chair. Sunlight streamed through the bedroom window, hurting Dan's eyes, but his mother insisted that he leave the blinds up because he'd been inside for the last seven days and needed vitamin D.

Dan cracked open his eyes slightly and looked at his friend from his spot nestled in bed. "Do you remember  _anything_ of what I told you on the phone?"

PJ chuckled. "You do realize that that call lasted approximately ten seconds, right?"

Dan closed his eyes and leaned back farther in bed. "Yeah, and it gave me a massive headache, too." He paused. "Has anyone told you why I was in hospital?"

PJ shook his head, and then realized that Dan couldn't see him and said, "No. I don't think anyone knows  _why_ you were in hospital. Did... did the McCarty brothers get at you again?" PJ's voice took on a nurturing quality.

Dan smiled. "No. I was in hospital because of a dream, I think."

PJ sat there for a moment, dumbfounded. "Wait, wait, wait. A freaking  _dream_ put you in hospital?"

Dan sat up painfully and looked PJ in the eye. "I saw  _hell,_ Peej." He stared at him, hoping that he could get the message through. "I could taste the terror in the air, Peej. I could see people have their skin ripped off again and again, I saw people boiling in lava, I saw tortures so  _painful_ I wanted to die right then and there instead of looking at it, Peej. I wanted to carve out my eyes. I saw things so terrible I nearly went mad." Dan's nose started to bleed again, and he wiped it off his lips with the back of his hand. "I think someone is trying to send me a message."

"Dan. Do you realize how _insane_ that sounds?" PJ shook his head. "How do you expect me to believe you?"

"You _have_ to." Dan insisted. "I swear on my life."

PJ stood up and made his way to the door, reached for the handle, and pulled away again. He turned to Dan, then he began to pace back and forth in front of Dan's door. "This... this doesn't make any sense! Whatsoever! Who the hell would ever want to send you a message? Through a fucking dream? It's bloody impossible!"

Dan sighed. "Well, the fact that I regained my sight miraculously is also bloody impossible, but look at me now."

PJ stopped. He laughed. He laughed a laugh that only the people out of options do; a laugh that's desperate and delusional and frustrated. He collapsed back into Dan's office chair. "Sure. Fine. Okay. I believe you." He massaged his forehead with his hand. "But what the hell does  _Phil_ have to do with all of this?"

Dan blinked. He had momentarily forgotten what he'd called PJ over here about. "Oh. Uh, yeah. Phil moved here about a month ago, correct?" PJ nodded. "No one's ever heard of him before last month. Doesn't have an instagram, a snapchat, I don't even really think he knows what a cell phone is _,_ really." He took a breath. "And about the same time he shows up, I'm able to see again. No natural explanation. It was a fucking miracle."

Realization at what Dan was getting at began to show on Dan's face. "You've got to be shitting me, Dan. Tell me you're fucking joking. You can't actually think that Phil's a vampire or a fallen angel or something."

Dan kept going, hoping above hopes that PJ wouldn't think him insane. "And his skin is  _unnaturally cold._ Practically  _ice._ And he's  _far_ to pale-"

"Dan, we live in fucking  _England!"_

"And have you ever seen him eat? Ever? And whenever we hang out, terrible things happen to me, like when the McCarty brothers beat me up, and Phil came to save the day - which, don't get me wrong, was great and all, but how was he _there-_ "

"Dan. Just... stop talking. This has to be the medication, or something..."

Dan reached out and grabbed PJ's wrist, forcing him to focus on Dan. "Please, Peej. Humor me. Just for now. He's not  _normal._ I...I need your help. Just, help me spy on him or something, I  _need_ to know. He might be the missing piece in all of this! Just... Please. If I'm wrong, you can laugh at me for the rest of my goddamned life. I don't care. Just, believe me."

PJ looked as if he was internally arguing with himself, and Dan stifled a breath. PJ finally sighed, "Okay. I believe you. But if this is a prank or something..."

Dan let go of PJ's wrist, "No. I promise it's not."

PJ slouched back in his seat. "Alright. And I'm only doing this because the guy's super hot."

Dan laughed, and immediately regretted it because it sent a jab of pain through his skull.

PJ deliberated for a second, then said brightly, "Hey, you up to go to Melissa's?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

\-------

Dan and PJ ate dinner at Melissa's American Diner, like how they used to, despite it feeling somewhat different there, now. He didn't know what it was, but he felt apprehensive stepping through the restaurants doors.

He ended up falling asleep right when he got home, and woke up again with moonlight streaming through his window, a  _tic_ sound breaking the silence every few seconds.

Dan almost slipped back into a dreamless sleep when an especially loud smack startled him awake. He stumbled out of bed, immediately aware of who and what was making the noise.

With some effort, he threw open the shudders, and peeked out to see a familiar grinning face standing among the shrubbery beneath his window.

"Didn't see you at school all week!" Phil called up to him, his hands cupped over his mouth.

Dan's lips broke into a sleepy smile. "Well, it was probably because I nearly _died_ , you arsehole!"

Phil laughed, and Dan's stomach filled with butterflies, but he quickly reminded himself of who Phil really was, or what Dan thought he was: unnatural. Cute, but unnatural. He couldn't stop his dimples from showing, however.

"I'll be down in a few," Dan yelled down to Phil, who nodded.

"Hurry, the night doesn't last forever, and we've got things to do!" He smiled, slipping away towards Dan's front porch.

Dan chuckled to himself, and began to slip a t-shirt and a fleece sweater over his bare chest. He was having trouble keeping his main objective in mind. All he wanted to do was enjoy this night with Phil. He'd been waiting on it for over a week.

_Remember who he is,_ Dan thought to himself.  _Remember what you need to do._

He paused.  _Fuck it._

He edged out of his silent house, his decision to throw all caution to the wind with Phil already weighing heavy on his back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omg I'm sorry that I left you at yet another cliffhanger, I know I know. im a terrible person. just let me explain myself!! the next chapter and this one were initially going to all be one, but i felt that it was better for the pacing of the story to leave it here, for now. i didn't want to take away from this half of the chapter by what happens in the next one ;). you should be able to expect another chapter before next Sunday. hopefully. don't hold me to it, im taking geometry, anything is possible.


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